Trump can't spread COVID-19, says top US health official Fauci

US President Donald Trump is no longer with the capacity of spreading the novel coronavirus and will attend a town hall on Thursday (Oct 15) without putting others at risk, top US public health official Anthony Fauci said in an interview with CBS Evening News.

Fauci said that he and his colleague Clifford Lane at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) concluded this after reviewing all the COVID-19 tests taken by the president along with an additional test conducted at an NIH laboratory.

Trump revealed in early stages Oct 2 that he previously tested positive for the novel coronavirus. He said he previously recovered and was no more contagious the next week.

The city hall with NBC News is significantly less than three weeks prior to the election where Republican Trump is trailing Democratic applicant Joe Biden in judgment polls.

Fauci also said in the CBS interview that America was unlikely to have 100 million doses of a vaccine deemed by regulators as "effective and safe" available by the end of the year, unlike a claim Trump manufactured in September.

Enough vaccines to inoculate the general population may be possible by April 2021 if each of the experimental vaccines in late-stage clinical trials proves effective, Fauci said. A number of the vaccine candidates may potentially receive regulatory clearance in November or December but only "a few million" doses could be available to the general public by year-end.

He added that the experimental antibody drug made by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals that was used to take care of the President, and which Trump said he really wants to make absolve to all Americans, isn't yet available in satisfactory supply to provide to all COVID-19 patients. It really is still awaiting US regulatory clearance.